Beaches in St. Petersburg Florida are beautiful with lots of soft, white sand.

PHOTO: Derek McNaughton, Postmedia News

2012 Volkswagen Touareg TDI.

PHOTO: Derek McNaughton, Postmedia News

2012 Volkswagen Touareg TDI.

PHOTO: Derek McNaughton, Postmedia News

By Derek McNaughton, Postmedia News

Originally published: April 12, 2012

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

Ottawa to St. Petersburg, Florida is 2,345 kilometres, a distance so vast that driving there makes about as much sense as a manned mission to Mars.

Include the return distance, and pretty soon the prospect of driving more than 5,000 kilometres — at a time when the price of gasoline is swirling above Hurricane Katrina levels — will convince most sane people they’d be better off aboard something with wings.

But here in cold and icy Ottawa, my wife and I and our two sons sit in a 2012 Volkswagen Touareg TDI, the diesel version of this mid-size SUV. All of us are ready and eager to complete the mission to St. Pete beach, where the forecast is sunny and hot for the week. The Touareg’s 85-litre tank is full of low-sulpher diesel and the range showing on the onboard computer is 980 kilometres.

Even my small brain realizes that’s less than three tanks of diesel to reach our spring-break destination. For a family of four, that’s a lot cheaper than anything Air Canada can come up with — and it means we don’t have to rent a car, won’t have to give up any mobility, won’t have to wake up at 3 a.m. for a 6 a.m. flight that probably routes through Duluth before getting delayed. Plus we can pack all the surfboards, snorkel gear and skim boards we want into the Touareg’s 900-litre cargo hold without getting hit for extra baggage charges.

Driving always trumps flying.

Still, the many hours to contend with are daunting: the Touareg’s navigation unit has calculated our arrival time at 8:10 a.m. — the next day. It is now 7:10 a.m., Thursday, which means 25 hours of highway hauling lies ahead, not including pee breaks, food stops and traffic.

I slip the $53,575 Touareg into drive and put my faith in the navigation system, which turns out to be a marvel of simplicity, even if it can’t be trusted to keep us from congested areas as it tries to pick the shortest distance. No, we don’t need to travel through Baltimore and Washington at rush hour.

Out on the highway, the Touareg cruises beautifully. It may only have a 3.0-Litre V6 with 225 horsepower, but there’s 406 lb.-ft of torque on tap, which makes it feel incredibly fast. Indeed, zero to 100 km/h requires 8.4 seconds, quicker than the Ford Explorer, Dodge Durango or Mercedes M Class. And we could almost tow our house, with a maximum towing capacity of 3,500 kgs. Handling is about what you’d expect from a heavy SUV, with some moderate lean in the corners but an above average ride quality over rough roads. The brakes required more force than necessary to bring the SUV down from speed, but they showed no problems in stopping, able to halt the SUV in an impressive 41.9 metres from 100 km/h.

Stats aside, the thrust that the diesel brings to the Touareg as throttle is increased is impressive, especially since this SUV weighs 2,256 kg. The power is addictive, too, since the engine winds up with zero harshness or unnecessary vibration. It’s surprisingly quiet too, inside and out. Several people did not believe this was a diesel.

Through the states of New York, Virginia and the Carolinas, the price of diesel ran anywhere from 10 to 50 cents more than regular per gallon, but in Canada the difference is closer to 5 cents per litre. Occasionally we came to a station that didn’t serve diesel, but the navigation system can be set to show where diesel stations are located, which helped a lot. That said, we spent a total of $269.23 on diesel on the way down, and $256.46 on the way back, for a total of $525.69 to drive 5,187.4 kilometres. After one particular fill up, the fuel range showed 1,080 km to empty. Heck, long-haul truckers can’t go that long without stopping.

Our fuel economy, as registered by the onboard computer, was 8.1 L/100 km, though our average speed was a brisk 112 km/h, thanks to long jaunts at 140 km/h in southern states where the speed limit is 75 mph. In other words, we weren’t dawdling and the trip down was accomplished in 27 hours including meal stops, though the trip back took 25 hours door to door. The official highway rating for the Touareg is 6.8 L/100 km.

After several hours behind the wheel, it was apparent the Touareg’s seats are hard. While I never suffered any cramping, the butt did get sore. Mind you, 16 hours behind the wheel is a long, long time. The Touareg definitely made the haul easier, however, since the cabin is such a delightful space. And not once did I hear a squeak or rattle. The back seats provided plenty of legroom for our two boys, aged 11 and 14, each of whom appreciated the 115V and 12V outlets for their electronics.

The instrument cluster looks lifted straight from the new Audi A6, though I couldn’t display both the digital speedometer and fuel economy numbers at the same time. The rest of the controls are remarkably easy to see and operate. One of the coolest features is the way brand icons from known businesses appear in the instrument cluster when set to navigation. The icons are much like those U.S. road signs at various exits that show what services are available, except the Touareg reveals them to the driver well in advance. Hankering for a latte at Starbucks and want to get fuel at a Shell station? Oh, look! There’s one of each at the next exit in 4 kms, and it’s going to take three minutes to get there. Genius.

I wish the same brilliance came with the iPod connection, which is awkwardly located in the glove box. Maybe my iPod is too old, but neither songs or artists would display in the Touareg’s centre display, nor would it charge the unit while playing. The Bluetooth phone set up, however, works simply and seamlessly. I’m surprised the base Touareg doesn’t include HID lighting or a backup camera, but it does include a handy power lift gate.

Regardless, the real joy of the Touareg TDI is the deliciously smooth engine, tight-shifting eight-speed transmission and roomy, luxurious cabin, which made all those miles to Florida and back the happiest highway hauling experience I’ve ever had.